AFTER THE LAST STROKE

German project KING OF AGOGIK is the brainchild of composer, drummer and musician Hans Jorg Schmitz, and ever since 2006 he has created and delivered a steady stream of expressive and elaborate personal takes on the art of progressive rock, with perhaps an ever so slight emphasis on this kind of music as seen from a drummers perspective. "After the Last Stroke" is the seventh and most recent of these productions, and was released through Schmitz' own label Saustark Records in 2019.

Eclectic, expressive and somewhat demanding instrumental progressive rock is the main playground for Germany's long lasting project King of Agogik, where main man Hans Jorg Schmitz and his minor army of musical guests holds court to a colorful and varied take on the genre. This time around with a foundation in the symphonic parts of this universe, but with detours to both jazz and world music in addition to occasional passages flirting with both neo-progressive rock and music that is borderline progressive metal. An album that merits a check by those who tend to enjoy expressive and eclectic instrumental progressive rock touching base with style variations as outlined.

This is the first time I have come across the band King of Agokik, who have been releasing albums since 2006, and this is seventh, following on from 2017's 'Morning Star'. Somewhat unusually this band is based around someone who is first and foremost a drummer, namely Hans Jörg Schmitz. Here, as well as providing drums and percussion he also adds keyboards, guitars and bass, but also brings in other musicians to assist him in achieving his vision. Many of those involved with this album have played on other releases as well, and I spotted the name of Andrew Marshall (Willowglass) on a few of them, while Steve Unruh (Resistor, The Samurai of Prog, UPF) is also someone who has been involved with Schmitz for some years.

Instrumental eclectic drum-driven progressive rock is the order of the day, and there are times when it can come across as very heavy indeed, Take "A Day Without End" for example, as this has sections where it is blasting out, which is somewhat unusual as the lead instruments are at times acoustic guitar, flute, drums, keyboards, violin and bass, although the electric guitar is used at other points as well. There are times when this is symphonic, others it veers more into jazz, yet it always has that common thread of powerful drumming and back beat which continues to make it inherently listenable and enjoyable. I found it very easy to get into it the very first time I played it, but others who may not have quite as catholic tastes as mine may find this somewhat hard work, but it is certainly worth persevering with. Schmitz has put a slightly different approach into the songs, coming as he does from the percussive world, and here it works very well indeed.